Chapter 65
Sixty-Five
Stacey had the strangest feeling that every emotion had been amplified.
When she saw Ava laugh, as she was doing now while playing a board game with Devon, she felt a surge of joy course through her at the little girl’s happiness.
When Ava cried in her arms, she felt sorrow reach deeper into her soul than she’d ever known before.
It was like a computer game – having a child around unlocked different levels of the same emotion.
Every feeling was now in high definition.
Ava wasn’t even her child, but she seemed unable to make that distinction.
She was a child in need in her care. That was enough.
She only hoped she could find some long-lost relative before it was too late. The boss wasn’t going to be able to put off social services for much longer.
Despite the urgency, her immediate focus was on Karen Felton’s social media accounts, although there wasn’t much to see.
Karen had a business page on Facebook. She wasn’t present on Instagram or TikTok or even X.
Social media wasn’t how she got her clients.
There was the bare minimum of information in the ‘About’ section, no phone number or address.
She posted occasionally, maybe once a month, and the responses from her two hundred followers were lacklustre.
Stacey briefly scrolled through the list of followers, but nothing familiar jumped out at her.
It was as though someone had told her she needed an online presence, so she’d done it, but she wasn’t really interested. Most likely one of her boarders had set it up for her.
Stacey had to admit that she wasn’t a believer in alternative medicine.
How was palm healing and universal energy supposed to mend anything wrong in the body?
She knew clinical research showed it to be ineffective, and yet it had become big business.
She couldn’t help but wonder if it was the placebo effect of positive thinking.
Stacey put a message in the group chat to say that nothing had flagged up on Karen’s socials before turning her attention to Ashley’s relatives.
Using the same software she’d used for Martha Stout’s family, she began to plug in the details she had available.
A while later, a steaming cup of chamomile tea appeared beside her.
‘Thanks, babe,’ Stacey said, sitting back in her chair and stretching her neck.
‘Loo break,’ Devon said, nodding towards the bathroom. ‘She is kicking my arse at Monopoly.’
‘She got Park Lane?’ Stacey asked with a smile.
‘Yep, and Mayfair.’
‘Give it up now, Dee. You’ve lost,’ Stacey said before touching her wife’s hand. ‘And by the way, I love you.’
Devon kissed the top of her head. ‘Back atcha, wifey. Any luck?’ she asked, glancing at Stacey’s notes.
Stacey shook her head as Ava exited the bathroom.
Devon squeezed her shoulder before returning to the board game.
So far, Stacey had established that Ashley and Warren had only one cousin on their father’s side. He had emigrated to New Zealand at the age of twenty-five and died in a farming accident three years later.
The next generation up, Ashley and Warren’s parents, had only two siblings between them. Her mother’s brother had died of asbestos poisoning at the age of fifty-seven, and her father’s much older sister had been admitted to a care home six years ago.
Stacey knew how much the boss wanted her to find any living, breathing relative who could take Ava, but right now it was not looking good at all.